EMBASSY NEWS & EVENTS

Made at the initiative of the Institute of National Remembrance, the film shows Poles’ struggle for freedom from the first day of WWII until the fall of communism in Europe in 1989. The animation presents the turning points and the heroes of Poles’ fifty-year-long struggle for freedom.

History is presented by one protagonist, who on the one hand is a symbol of the Polish struggle for a free state, and on the other uses each scene to talk about historical figures such as Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki, the co-founder of the Polish Underground Army, Irena Sendler, who saved over 2,500 Jewish children during WWII, and Witold Urbanowicz, the commander of 303 Squadron. The production also tells the story of General Stanisław Maczek, the 1st Armoured Division commander during the campaign to free Western Europe from the German occupation in 1944, Jan Karski, the first person to deliver a report on the Holocaust to the Allied Powers, and Marian Rejewski, a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who broke the Enigma code.

“With this film we want to start an international educational campaign presenting the 1939–1989 period from a Polish historical perspective. I have a feeling that with The Unconquered we have returned to the perspective embraced by soldiers of General Władysław Anders’ 2nd Polish Corps, that is to an uncompromising struggle for our country’s freedom” says Adam Hlebowicz, Vice-Director of the Office of National Education of the Institute of National Remembrance. “It is the voice of a sovereign state which had mustered the fourth largest army for this war, made the greatest sacrifices, and was the only state to have fought in this war from day one. Without the Polish perspective it is not possible to fully grasp the course as well as the consequences of WWII,” he adds.

Once they have seen the film, viewers are directed to a website especially designed for this purpose which presents facts and personal histories of the Poles featured in the animation. The Unconquered was for the first time presented before the 78th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland. The film’s English version narrated by the British actor Sean Bean, and the Polish version by Mirosław Zbrojewicz.